Angola Cables, Teraco partner to launch South African PoP
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Angola Cables, Teraco partner to launch South African PoP

Angola Cables has announced that its first direct point of presence (PoP) in Johannesburg, South Africa, will be operational in December.

Angola Cables has selected Teraco Data Environments as the colocation partner to deploy the PoP.

“As part of establishing Angola as one of the leading hubs for Internet connectivity in Africa, we’re growing a strong IP ecosystem among countries in Southern and Western Africa, as well as the South America,” said Antonio Nunes, CEO of Angola Cables.

“Beyond the connectivity between Africa and the Americas, the first South Atlantic route to connect these continents will also provide a reliable new route to customers in Asia in the South Hemisphere, as well as a range of connectivity and content services to global organisations.”

Earlier this year, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) announced it was to provide a $65.8 million loan to Angola’s state-run development bank to finance the construction of the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS), an optical submarine cable system between Angola and Brazil.

The SACS spans 6,200km and connects Sangano in Angola with Fortaleza in Brazil. Angola’s Banco de Desenvolvimento de Angola (BDA) will be receiving the loan, NEC and its subcontractors will be manufacturing and laying the submarine cable system on behalf of Angolan telecom operator, Angola Cables.

"This project will lay the world's first optical submarine cable across the South Atlantic, directly linking the African continent to South America," JBIC said in a statement.

"The optical submarine cable is then planned to be linked to the US-bound submarine cable under construction at the landing station in Brazil, building a vast communications network spanning from Angola to North America via South America."

The loan is to be co-financed with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), which will add $43.9 million to the project, making the total co-financing amount to approximately $109.7 million. 

Angola Cables has also recently announced that it has chosen Etis Everywhere as its partner to build its critical infrastructure globally as part of its project to offer a lower latency route between the US and Africa.

DE-CIX Partnership

Angola Cables recently won the Best Service Innovation accolade at the Capacity’s Africa Carrier Awards 2016 along with its partner DE-CIX. The partnership with the Internet Exchange (IX) operator is set to intensify and extend its relationship in the upcoming year. The companies have announced that they will continue their expansion ambitions as influential drivers to grow Africa’s digital economy.

“After successfully cooperating over the past two years – topped off with winning the Best Africa Service Innovation Award at the Capacity Africa conference in late September - we felt it was the right move to deepen our partnership with DE-CIX to support Africa’s digital transformation,” said Antonio Nunes, CEO of Angola Cables. “The rise of the mobile workforce with cloud enablement in Africa will push hyper-connected ecosystems that have transcontinental impacts.”

Harald Summa, CEO of DE-CIX, added: “We at DE-CIX are excited to extend our cooperation with Angola Cables in 2017 and take it to the next level. DE-CIX is known for building peering bridges from Europe to Africa and vice versa. With peering and cloud enablement from DE-CIX, customers can connect to 1000+ international and national networks, experience the fastest interconnection possible and also reduce latency and IP transit costs. Customers in the SADC region can easily get connected by using Angola Cables’ IP POPs, angonix.net or DE-CIX’s Internet Exchanges in Europe, North America and beyond.” 

DE-CIX was also recognised earlier this month at Capacity’s annual Global Carrier Awards in France as the Best Internet Exchange 2016.





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